Apple is battling Samsung and others in this market and margins are crucial. Apple cannot affort to write a royalty check to Intel for each iPhone sold especially when Samsung is using it's own processor.
Rumour has it that Apple is also working on developing its own 64b ARM CPU which is higher performance than the A6. I wonder if the plan there is to replace the intel processors in the low end macbooks or macbook air. If they can pull that off that would be a real coup.

Apple is battling Samsung and others in this market and margins are crucial. Apple cannot affort to write a royalty check to Intel for each iPhone sold especially when Samsung is using it's own processor.
Rumour has it that Apple is also working on developing its own 64b ARM CPU which is higher performance than the A6. I wonder if the plan there is to replace the intel processors in the low end macbooks or macbook air. If they can pull that off that would be a real coup.

I expect financial analysts to follow the money.
The whole "OMG! Apple is considering moving to Intel for mobile devices!" brouhaha that seems to surface periodically raises the question "What's in it for Apple?" Switching architectures is a non-trivial process, as an entire eco-system is affected.
I can see why it would be good for Intel, but don't see what Apple would gain that would make it worth the while.
Part of me suspects the unnamed investment analysts work for outfits that have placed bets on Intel. A vaguely credible rumor that Apple was contemplating such a switch would produce a pop in Intel's stock price, and they could unload at a profit.
Cynical? Me? Why, yes.

I expect financial analysts to follow the money.
The whole "OMG! Apple is considering moving to Intel for mobile devices!" brouhaha that seems to surface periodically raises the question "What's in it for Apple?" Switching architectures is a non-trivial process, as an entire eco-system is affected.
I can see why it would be good for Intel, but don't see what Apple would gain that would make it worth the while.
Part of me suspects the unnamed investment analysts work for outfits that have placed bets on Intel. A vaguely credible rumor that Apple was contemplating such a switch would produce a pop in Intel's stock price, and they could unload at a profit.
Cynical? Me? Why, yes.

who really cares about how Apple lays out the gunk that glues together the off-the-shelf ARM and PowerVM cores they buy.
OTOH, it would be interesting to know what Apple thinks of big-little. or whether/how they're stacking dram-on-cpu for better bw/power.
of course, it's not hard to get a mobile device to the point where the backlight is the single largest power consumer - and that is what they'd call a "mandatory expenditure" in DC...

who really cares about how Apple lays out the gunk that glues together the off-the-shelf ARM and PowerVM cores they buy.
OTOH, it would be interesting to know what Apple thinks of big-little. or whether/how they're stacking dram-on-cpu for better bw/power.
of course, it's not hard to get a mobile device to the point where the backlight is the single largest power consumer - and that is what they'd call a "mandatory expenditure" in DC...